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Buying office furniture is a major responsibility. You have to contend with many competing preferences, juggle deadlines that are often a moving target, and ensure proper space planning is performed or risk having furniture that doesn't fit. Here are some tips to help you manage the process.
As you get closer to the target move/installation date, you'll have less flexibility. This makes it important to start early. For example, some office furniture, especially new office furniture, may not be available on deadlines less than 4 weeks. There are also people problems that can come up on a very short deadline--if you go with the fastest options for a particular piece of office furniture and it isn't doesn't match the aesthetic of the space you're moving into, you might find your coworkers upset.
Although we recommend you start early, we are of course able to accomodate short deadlines, sometimes even less than 2 weeks for used office furniture.
Before you start soliciting quotes, it's best to have the details in order.
What sort of timeline is typical? Glad you asked.
Most of our customers begin the process between 4 and 12 weeks before the target installation date. Our larger customers tend to have larger spaces and more people involved in the decisionmaking process, so they can sometimes start 2-3 months in advance. If there's only one decisionmaker (that's you!) and it's a small space, things can move as fast as 2 weeks (or less), but we recommend 3-4 weeks to keep stress levels low.
Especially when it comes to things like office chairs and office desks, preferences can be highly personal and are difficult to judge without seeing for yourself in person. We recommend you make an appointment with our expert project managers to visit us at our office furniture showroom during this step of the process.
If a particular piece of office furniture isn't available to see in person ahead of time, e.g. some types of private office furniture, you should make sure that you see actual, non-stock photos of the furniture that will arrive on your doorstep on move-in day.
Nobody wants to spend more than they have to, and that's why we offer a combination of new office furniture and used office furniture to help you balance cost and features.
However, don't confuse price and value. For key pieces of office furniture, like office chairs, you might want to spend the extra money considering how many hours a day you and your colleagues spend sitting in them. The same is true for office desks -- consider standing desks to give people a healthier option.
People are often surprised to find that their landlord may have requirements they didn't expect that must be in place before moving. These include:
It can be hard to balance the need to get everyone's buy-in with the need to keep things moving along. We have found that it is best to have a general idea of style and furniture types at the outset, and then to narrow it down by giving people specific choices before making the final decision.
Either way - don't forget to include everyone - having an unhappy Big Boss on installation day is no fun for anyone.
It can be really irritating if you are in the middle of buying office furniture and you can get passed back and forth from one person to the next, having to explain style preferences, dimensions, quantities, etc. to a new person. There are already enough details to manage without adding this complication.
We make this process simple - you only have to deal with one person from start to finish - your expert project manager.
If you only remember one thing about us, let it be this: Service matters here. We know you have many choices in office furniture and the options can look the same. We are confident that our service is the absolute best, and our people really care about you and your order. Take a close look at our Google and Yelp reviews if you want to get a better sense of how our customers feel about us.
